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11 million acres, they’ve outsmarted Monsanto
and are surviving. This undermines the usefulness
of the technology and is prompting more and
more farmers to abandon GMOs. Roundup also
promotes plant diseases. Scientists have identified
more than 40 that are on the rise in the United
States due to this toxic herbicide. In particular,
Sudden Death Syndrome on soy and Goss’ Wilt
on corn are causing widespread crop loss.
As soon as farmers stop believing Monsanto’s
cover-up stories and realize how Roundup is
driving down their yields, they’ll be mighty angry.
(The biotech industry wants to introduce new
poison-drinking GMOs, which can tolerate 2,4-
D, a main component of Agent Orange.)
2. Insects—
Bugs Just Say No to GMOs
In addition to the herbicide-tolerant GMOs that
drink poison, corn and cotton varieties are engineered
to produce their own. The inserted genes
produce Bt-toxin, which breaks open the stomach
of insects and kills them. But the insects took
a lesson from the weeds and are now developing
resistance to the Bt corn and cotton plants.
3. Animals—
You’re Feeding Me WHAT?
Word is spreading that animals fed GMOs are
getting sicker. We’ve known for years about the
fate of lab animals: organ damage, reproductive
failure, high infant mortality, stomach lesions,
smaller bodies and organs, immune responses,
and higher death rates. But now there are parallel
symptoms suffered by livestock and pets.
Sheep, buffalo, cattle, and pigs are dying in higher
numbers; cats and dogs itch and scratch more;
young pigs get weak and become aggressive;
cows produce less milk; and farmers nationwide
are seeing unprecedented levels of infertility and
spontaneous abortions in their livestock.
According to veterinarians and farmers, when
animals are butchered, the organs of the GMOfed
cows and pigs are often discolored and carry a
foul stench. Pig stomachs are inflamed and ulcerated;
cow intestines are thin and weak. One vet
said the liver of a GMO-fed cow “looked like a
bomb went off in it.” When animals are switched
to non-GMO feed, their health improves, death
rates drop, milk production soars, litter size increases,
and reproduction rates are restored.
Farmers are happier, and oddly enough, so too
are their animals. Several have told me exactly
that. They no longer look stressed and agitated.
They’re calm, and actually look happy.”
Although I’ve heard these stories for years,
they’re becoming commonplace. I asked a group
of 80 “progressive” farmers at a February 2012
conference, “How many of you have seen livestock
health get worse on GMOs or improve on
non-GMO feed?” Twenty raised their hand. It’s
not just U.S. farmers who are noticing.
According to the Danish farmer magazine
Effiktivt Landbrug, farmer Ib Borup Pedersen re-
ports that the very first day he switched his 450
www.rareseeds.com
momma pigs to non-GMO soy last April, “Our
massive problems with the baby pig diarrhea disappeared.”
Since then, they just got better and
better. The pigs are now getting pregnant more
easily and produce more milk; they give birth to
more piglets per litter; and the amount of money
spent on medicine dropped by two-thirds. In
the previous two years, 36 sows died of stomach
problems. But now, he says, “These diseases
have completely disappeared since the change.”
As more conventional producers get wind of
the increased profits with non-GMO feed, we will
see a stampede. But animals are already running
from GMOs. When given a choice, cows, pigs,
chickens, mice, rats, squirrels, ducks, magpies,
deer, raccoons, dogs, and buffalo have all been
seen choosing the non-GMO corn or soy. It’s time
we raised humans to the level of animals.
4. Micro-organisms—
Unfolding Catastrophe
Even the microscopic world is being assaulted by
GMOs. DNA inserted into GMOs can transfer to
bacteria in the environment and even inside our
intestines. The associated weed killer Roundup
also devastates soil ecology, killing beneficial
bacteria and promoting pathogens.
But the world of the tiny appears to be fighting
back. In a private January 2011 letter to
USDA Secretary Vilsack, Roundup expert Don
Huber, PhD, warned that a team of scientists had
identified high concentrations of a new type of
ultra-microscopic organism in Roundup-treated
crops. It was closely associated with both plant
disease and animal infertility and miscarriages.
When farmers were struggling with high
rates of the latter, analysis of their feed and the
animals’ aborted fetal tissue showed an infestation
of this organism. In lab tests, the organism
killed the embryo in pregnant chicken in just 48
hours. Huber intended for his letter to remain secret.
He figured the Agriculture Secretary would
delay the approval of Roundup Ready alfalfa
while USDA scientists would help to evaluate this
potential emergency. But the letter was leaked
onto the Internet, Secretary Vilsack approved the
alfalfa, and the USDA has not yet contributed to
the research.
5. Humans—Awakening
to the Tipping Point
It happened in Europe more than a decade ago.
When enough consumers learned about the risks
of GMOs, they didn’t want it, and good companies
were forced to stop using GMO ingredients.
In the United States, genetically modified (GM)
bovine growth hormone experienced a similar
fate, and was booted out of most dairies and
brands, including Starbucks, Dannon, Yoplait,
even Wal-Mart.
How many GMO-avoiding Americans would
be sufficient to inspire the food companies to
eliminate all GM ingredients here? First consider
that GMOs give no consumer benefit. No one
yearns for their daily dose of Roundup- or Bt-
How many GMO-avoiding
Americans would be
sufficient to inspire the food
companies to eliminate all
GM ingredients here?
We predict as little as
5% of consumers avoiding
GM brands would start the
non-GMO avalanche.
toxin-laden foods. Second, it’s the same companies
that removed GMOs from their European brands
that sell Frankenfoods to us.
• As millions of Americans awaken to the threat,
anti-GMO organizing has reached unprecedented
levels. Thousands have formed into
outreach groups; last year more than 100 rallies,
marches, and events were held. And the
Occupy Movement is starting to get on board
the GMO issue.
• Mainstream media coverage of GMOs has
picked up substantially since 2010, with stories
on GE salmon, alfalfa, sugar beets, and
super weeds, etc. We’re a networked world
now. Click-and-send revolutionaries can
spread ideas and spark new trends in no time.
We’re approaching the critical mass on GMOs.
Jeffrey m. smith is the Executive Director of
the Institute for Responsible Technology (www.
ResponsibleTechnology.org), the international
bestselling author of Seeds of Deception and
Genetic Roulette (www.SeedsofDeception.com),
and will soon have a new film documenting yet
more evidence that GMOs are wreaking havoc.
Reprinted with permission from Heirloom Gardener
magazine, Summer 2012 edition.
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